What Is a DBMS?

• A very large, integrated collection of

data.
• Models real-world enterprise.
– Entities (e.g., students, courses)
– Relationships (e.g., Madonna is taking
ITCS6160)
• A Database Management System
(DBMS) is a software package designed
to maintain and utilize databases.
Ramakrishnan & Gehrke
 Why Use a DBMS?

• Data independence and efficient

access.
• Reduced application development
time.
• Data integrity and security.
• Uniform data administration.
• Concurrent access, recovery from
crashes.
Ramakrishnan & Gehrke
 Why Study Databases??
• Shift from computation to information
– at the “low end”: scramble to webspace
– at the “high end”: scientific applications
• Datasets increasing in diversity and volume.
– Digital libraries, interactive video, Human Genome
project, EOS project
– ... need for DBMS exploding
• DBMS encompasses most of CS
– OS, languages, theory, “A”I, multimedia, logic

Ramakrishnan & Gehrke

 Data Models
• A data model is a collection of concepts for
describing data.
• A schema is a description of a particular
collection of data, using the a given data
model.
• The relational model of data is the most
widely used model today.
– Main concept: relation, basically a table with
rows and columns.
– Every relation has a schema, which describes
the columns, or fields.

Ramakrishnan & Gehrke

 Levels of Abstraction
• Many views, single
View 1 View 2 View 3
conceptual (logical)
schema and physical
schema. Conceptual Schema
– Views describe how users
see the data. Physical Schema

– Conceptual schema
defines logical structure
– Physical schema
describes the files and
indexes used.
☛ Schemas are defined using DDL; data is modified/queried using DML

Ramakrishnan & Gehrke

 Example: University
Database
• External Schema (View):
– Course_info(cid:string,enrollment:integer)

• Conceptual schema:
– Students(sid: string, name: string, login: string,
age: integer, gpa:real)
– Courses(cid: string, cname:string, credits:integer)
– Enrolled(sid:string, cid:string, grade:string)

• Physical schema:
– Relations stored as unordered files.
– Index on first column of Students.

Ramakrishnan & Gehrke

 Data Independence
• Applications insulated from how data
is structured and stored.
• Logical data independence:
Protection from changes in logical
structure of data.
• Physical data independence:
Protection from changes in physical
structure
☛ One ofimportant
of the most data. benefits of using a DBMS!

Ramakrishnan & Gehrke

 Concurrency Control
• Concurrent execution of user programs is essential
for good DBMS performance.
– Because disk accesses are frequent, and relatively slow, it
is important to keep the cpu humming by working on
several user programs concurrently.
• Interleaving actions of different user programs can
lead to inconsistency: e.g., check is cleared while
account balance is being computed.
• DBMS ensures such problems don’t arise: users can
pretend they are using a single-user system.

Ramakrishnan & Gehrke

 Transaction: An Execution of a DB
Program
Key concept is transaction, which is an atomic
•
sequence of database actions (reads/writes).
• Each transaction, executed completely, must leave
the DB in a consistent state if DB is consistent when
the transaction begins.
– Users can specify some simple integrity constraints on
the data, and the DBMS will enforce these constraints.
– Beyond this, the DBMS does not really understand the
semantics of the data. (e.g., it does not understand how
the interest on a bank account is computed).
– Thus, ensuring that a transaction (run alone) preserves
consistency is ultimately the user’s responsibility!

Ramakrishnan & Gehrke

 Scheduling Concurrent
Transactions
• DBMS ensures that execution of {T1, ... , Tn} is
equivalent to some serial execution T1’ ... Tn’.
– Before reading/writing an object, a transaction requests a
lock on the object, and waits till the DBMS gives it the lock.
All locks are released at the end of the transaction. (Strict
2PL locking protocol.)
– Idea: If an action of Ti (say, writing X) affects Tj (which
perhaps reads X), one of them, say Ti, will obtain the lock
on X first and Tj is forced to wait until Ti completes; this
effectively orders the transactions.
– What if Tj already has a lock on Y and Ti later requests a
lock on Y? (Deadlock!) Ti or Tj is aborted and restarted!

Ramakrishnan & Gehrke

 Ensuring Atomicity
• DBMS ensures atomicity (all-or-nothing property)
even if system crashes in the middle of a Xact.
• Idea: Keep a log (history) of all actions carried out by
the DBMS while executing a set of Xacts:
– Before a change is made to the database, the
corresponding log entry is forced to a safe location. (WAL
protocol; OS support for this is often inadequate.)
– After a crash, the effects of partially executed transactions
are undone using the log. (Thanks to WAL, if log entry
wasn’t saved before the crash, corresponding change was
not applied to database!)

Ramakrishnan & Gehrke

 The Log
• The following actions are recorded in the log:
– Ti writes an object: the old value and the new value.
• Log record must go to disk before the changed page!
– Ti commits/aborts: a log record indicating this action.
• Log records chained together by Xact id, so it’s easy to
undo a specific Xact (e.g., to resolve a deadlock).
• Log is often duplexed and archived on “stable” storage.
• All log related activities (and in fact, all concurrency
control related activities such as lock/unlock, dealing with
deadlocks etc.) are handled transparently by the DBMS.

Ramakrishnan & Gehrke

Databases make these folks
happy ...
• End users and DBMS vendors
• DB application programmers
– E.g. smart webmasters
• Database administrator (DBA)
– Designs logical /physical schemas
– Handles security and authorization
– Data availability, crash recovery
– Database tuning as needs evolve
Must understand how a DBMS works!
Ramakrishnan & Gehrke
 These layers
Structure of a DBMS must consider
concurrency
control and
recovery
• A typical DBMS has a Query Optimization
layered architecture. and Execution
• The figure does not
show the concurrency Relational Operators
control and recovery
Files and Access Methods
components.
• This is one of several Buffer Management
possible architectures;
each system has its own Disk Space Management
variations.

DB

Ramakrishnan & Gehrke

 Summary
• DBMS used to maintain, query large datasets.
• Benefits include recovery from system crashes, concurrent
access, quick application development, data integrity and
security.
• Levels of abstraction give data independence.
• A DBMS typically has a layered architecture.
• DBAs hold responsible jobs and are well-paid!
• DBMS R&D is one of the broadest,
most exciting areas in CS.

Ramakrishnan & Gehrke